A little while ago i got a pm from a friend asking "how i draw my art to make it look so good?" I was flattered (do to the little confidence i have XD ) and wrote her up a basic overview of what i keep in mind when drawing requests. :3 After i finished looking to over for mistakes i thought that it turned out fairly well and wanted to share it with all of you fellow artists working to improve! biggrin I hope this helps you guys a little and have fun creating beautiful art! heart
Hello! biggrin here are some of the references i found which i think would be useful for your art skills! >w< now both of us know the basic steps of art. First, draw the drawing, second, color the drawing, third give it dimension by shading and highlighting it!
For the basic drawing we want to give it form, or more of the correct form, weather you are drawing a cartoon or realistically. For our example today lets use a cat. REFERENCES are the best thing that can EVER happen too an artist!!! The human mind is programed to notice basic features (which is why if you don't draw a human face correctly it can seem a bit creepy)
So here is our cat.
Ignore the organ anatomy, we don't care about that, but notice how the bone structure gives it it's shape, the curved back, the rounded paws, the slender face. Always look up the basic anatomy of what it is you want to draw!!! Now lets stencil that.
Simple enough. Just a bunch of lines and circles to help remind you whats supposed to be where. Now trace a form around our stencil (don't forget to draw some fur too biggrin )
(extra tip: if you feel that you still haven't got the right form down right try tracing this cat over and over until it becomes second nature. i did this when i was little and now i draw Scooby Doo like an expert! :3 There is no shame in looking at another picture or tracing for practice as long as it makes you a better artist in the long run! I do it and so did Leonardo.)
Me "Leo and I are best art buddies!" biggrin
Leonardo: "Do I know you from somewhere future girl?"
Me: "SHUT UP! I was trying to make a point!" >.>
anyway...
Alright! looks about done! next we just need to color and shade it! When shading and lighting contrast is what makes your art pop out and give it a 3D kinda look. What makes it hard is understanding WHERE the light's angle is and HOW it will look on your subject. Depending on the shape and where you want your lighting to come from will determine how it will come out. After some searching i found a very good tutorial on shading!!
shading basics
Now if that info helped you as much as i hope it did we can move on to how to shade with color. For where the light hits it the strongest make the color (lets say our subject is red) fade into a lighter color, maybe even white. For where the shadows are make the red fade into something darker, like a dark purple and maybe even into black. (if you cant find some references try shining a light on a toy cat in a dark bathroom or something to get a basic idea of where the shadows should be.) XD
Shading with color example:
<"oi! where is my shading?"
This is not the best example but you can see how i used a lighter color for highlights yes? The yellow is what i used for highlights. No if i had used a bit of darker red on the opposite sides of the highlights this would have been a better example for shading as well. ^_^;
Shading wit a subject that is dark to begin with (such as this black cat) you don't really need to focus so much on shading as much as you do on lighting:
<"hmmm lighting you say? What a confusing topic!""
This cat was easy seeing as all i did was color him in black and colored over the black with whitish, light blue to show where the light hit his fur and made it shine. see? biggrin Without the lighting it is just solid black, which in reality looks unnatural, or just like this.
<"kekeke i am the darkness! light cannot touch me!!! I am also extremely easy to color!"
See the difference?
I really hope this helped even if just by a little bit. Don't worry if you don't think your art comes out the way you wanted it too. Your art is never as bad as you think it is. You are your own worst critic and will always tend to think it is worse then it really is! Trust me on this, i know, i think my art sucks yet you don't seem to think so do you? If you are unsatisfied don't get down on yourself, just fool around with a pencil and parer for a while each day, practice really dose make perfect!!! f you just have fun with your practice and you think you drew a bad pic who cares, its just a doodle. If one of your doodles turns out exceptionally well for your standards (which i assume are very high for yourself) go ahead and spend a little extra time on it. Its a win win situation! biggrin
Basic highlights/ summery of this pm:
1) USE REFERENCES!
2)use contrast with your darks and lights
3) your art is NOT bad!
4) practice practice practice
5) you will make better art if you are having fun and not worrying too much about how perfect you want it to be! biggrin (if i didn't follow this rule i would be a mess. ;__; )
If any of you artists here also have some helpful tips to help each other out please feel free to post them here! Also feel free to post art you are proud of here as well. I LOVE seeing all of your unique art styles, it really makes my day! No one will ever be able to draw quite the way you do, no matter how hard they may try. heart If you have any questions please ask. Instructions on how to draw cats cant help you draw everything you know. (such as people, reptiles birds, ect. ) >w<
Hello! biggrin here are some of the references i found which i think would be useful for your art skills! >w< now both of us know the basic steps of art. First, draw the drawing, second, color the drawing, third give it dimension by shading and highlighting it!
For the basic drawing we want to give it form, or more of the correct form, weather you are drawing a cartoon or realistically. For our example today lets use a cat. REFERENCES are the best thing that can EVER happen too an artist!!! The human mind is programed to notice basic features (which is why if you don't draw a human face correctly it can seem a bit creepy)
So here is our cat.
Ignore the organ anatomy, we don't care about that, but notice how the bone structure gives it it's shape, the curved back, the rounded paws, the slender face. Always look up the basic anatomy of what it is you want to draw!!! Now lets stencil that.
Simple enough. Just a bunch of lines and circles to help remind you whats supposed to be where. Now trace a form around our stencil (don't forget to draw some fur too biggrin )
(extra tip: if you feel that you still haven't got the right form down right try tracing this cat over and over until it becomes second nature. i did this when i was little and now i draw Scooby Doo like an expert! :3 There is no shame in looking at another picture or tracing for practice as long as it makes you a better artist in the long run! I do it and so did Leonardo.)
Me "Leo and I are best art buddies!" biggrin
Leonardo: "Do I know you from somewhere future girl?"
Me: "SHUT UP! I was trying to make a point!" >.>
anyway...
Alright! looks about done! next we just need to color and shade it! When shading and lighting contrast is what makes your art pop out and give it a 3D kinda look. What makes it hard is understanding WHERE the light's angle is and HOW it will look on your subject. Depending on the shape and where you want your lighting to come from will determine how it will come out. After some searching i found a very good tutorial on shading!!
shading basics
Now if that info helped you as much as i hope it did we can move on to how to shade with color. For where the light hits it the strongest make the color (lets say our subject is red) fade into a lighter color, maybe even white. For where the shadows are make the red fade into something darker, like a dark purple and maybe even into black. (if you cant find some references try shining a light on a toy cat in a dark bathroom or something to get a basic idea of where the shadows should be.) XD
Shading with color example:
<"oi! where is my shading?"This is not the best example but you can see how i used a lighter color for highlights yes? The yellow is what i used for highlights. No if i had used a bit of darker red on the opposite sides of the highlights this would have been a better example for shading as well. ^_^;
Shading wit a subject that is dark to begin with (such as this black cat) you don't really need to focus so much on shading as much as you do on lighting:
<"hmmm lighting you say? What a confusing topic!""This cat was easy seeing as all i did was color him in black and colored over the black with whitish, light blue to show where the light hit his fur and made it shine. see? biggrin Without the lighting it is just solid black, which in reality looks unnatural, or just like this.
<"kekeke i am the darkness! light cannot touch me!!! I am also extremely easy to color!"See the difference?
I really hope this helped even if just by a little bit. Don't worry if you don't think your art comes out the way you wanted it too. Your art is never as bad as you think it is. You are your own worst critic and will always tend to think it is worse then it really is! Trust me on this, i know, i think my art sucks yet you don't seem to think so do you? If you are unsatisfied don't get down on yourself, just fool around with a pencil and parer for a while each day, practice really dose make perfect!!! f you just have fun with your practice and you think you drew a bad pic who cares, its just a doodle. If one of your doodles turns out exceptionally well for your standards (which i assume are very high for yourself) go ahead and spend a little extra time on it. Its a win win situation! biggrin
Basic highlights/ summery of this pm:
1) USE REFERENCES!
2)use contrast with your darks and lights
3) your art is NOT bad!
4) practice practice practice
5) you will make better art if you are having fun and not worrying too much about how perfect you want it to be! biggrin (if i didn't follow this rule i would be a mess. ;__; )
If any of you artists here also have some helpful tips to help each other out please feel free to post them here! Also feel free to post art you are proud of here as well. I LOVE seeing all of your unique art styles, it really makes my day! No one will ever be able to draw quite the way you do, no matter how hard they may try. heart If you have any questions please ask. Instructions on how to draw cats cant help you draw everything you know. (such as people, reptiles birds, ect. ) >w<
